Emergency location informer system

ABSTRACT

An emergency location informer system includes: an emergency mobile positioning (EMP) server; an emergency service number (ESN) database server storing civic addresses and associated tags that are provided by an internet service provider (ISP) over the IP network; a wireless access point (AP) EMP-AP component executing on a processor of an AP at a civic address known to the ISP, the EMP-AP component providing a tag, known to the ISP, forming a part of a radio frequency (RF) beacon signal transmitted by the AP; and a mobile operating system (OS) EMP-OS component executing on a processor of a cell phone and operative to monitor the beacon signal of the AP and to store the tag, the EMP-OS component being further operative to embed the tag in an emergency call from the cell phone to the EMP server over a network.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. application Ser. No.15/788,749 filed 19 Oct. 2017, which is hereby incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

Traditionally, telecommunications have been performed over the publicswitch telephone network (PSTN). A system to maintain addresses andother location information of the subscribers of telecommunicationscompanies operating on the PSTN was developed to provide addresses andlocations to emergency first responders. Determining the location ofsubscribers of the telecommunications companies was relatively easy asthe locations of telephones were known by the telecommunicationscompanies or carriers due to installing the telephones, establishingbilling, or otherwise.

Telecommunications have been changing rapidly over the past severalyears, primarily since the development and growth of the mobiletelephone industry. As a result, the predominant manner in whichconsumers communicate has changed and the ability of an EmergencyService Number (ESN) server to associate a location or address with aphone number is not possible. Mobile devices now account for over 70% ofemergency calls, and with existing location methodologies an ESN servercan only provide, at best, an estimated location represented by a circleon a map, as opposed to a verified civic address, e.g. an officialstreet address of a dwelling or building.

New forms of telecommunications including Voice Over Internet Protocol(VOIP) have been developing as well. With the new forms oftelecommunications, subscribers are able to use wireless devices thatmay access different wireless access points to communicate over acommunications network, such as the internet. For example, UnlicensedMobile Access (UMA) allows internet protocol (IP) access to corenetworks of many mobile carriers. The primary method for locating awireless device using UMA access is by using the Global PositioningSystem (GPS) functionality of the device. However, GPS has limitedaccuracy, particularly in urban areas where the bulk of emergency callsoriginate.

One common interface for wireless access to a communications networkincludes an IEEE 802.11 communications protocol, which is commonly knownas WiFi, and within the industry as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA).Standards for UMA have been established between the mobile industry andWiFi industry associations. Wireless devices are being configured tohave WiFi communications protocols to enable a subscriber to access WiFienabled access points. Many WiFi enabled wireless devices have globalpositioning system (GPS) capabilities that are able to communicate theGPS location information (i.e., latitude and longitude coordinates) ofthe WiFi enabled device. While GPS location information may be helpfulto track or locate a person at an estimated geographical location, suchinformation is not extremely useful in an emergency situation whereemergency rescue teams, such as firemen and police, better understandcivic address (e.g. street address) information for performing anemergency rescue in an emergency situation.

A public safety answering position (PSAP), or emergency call center, isused by emergency services to answer calls from the public to notifyemergency personnel, such as police or firemen, to respond to anemergency situation. Traditionally, a caller contacts a PSAP by dialing911 (or 112 in Europe) and provides location information during thetelephone call. When caller identification (i.e., caller ID) wasintroduced, PSAPs were installed with telephone systems compatible withcaller ID to identify names and phone numbers of individuals placingemergency 911 calls. This first version of caller ID is known as type Icaller ID. Type I caller ID operates in a single data message format(SDMF) as well as multiple data message format (MDMF) that provide acaller's telephone number, date and time of the call during the ringinginterval. A second type of caller ID or type II caller ID was laterdeveloped to communicate name and address information of a secondcalling party to a called party when a call between a called party and afirst calling party is in progress. Type II caller ID uses a multipledata message format (MDMF) that communicates a caller's name, telephonenumber, date and time.

Enhanced 911 (E911) is a North American Telephone Network (NATN) featureof the 911-emergency-calling system that uses a reverse telephonedirectory provided by cellular telephone companies to determine locationinformation of a caller. There are two types of E911 systems thatoperate within the United States, namely, Phase I and Phase II. E911Phase I systems are required to provide an operator with the telephonenumber, originator, and location of the cell site or base stationreceiving a 911 call. E911 Phase II systems are required to use anautomatic location identification (ALI). However, only 18% of all PSAPsare configured with E911 Phase II systems. The remaining 82% of PSAPsare configured with E911 Phase I systems, which are incapable ofhandling GPS coordinates, and, therefore, subscribers who have wirelesstelephones that use GPS coordinates for 911 emergency calls cannot beproperly serviced by these PSAPs. If a caller is using a non-cellularwireless device, such as a WiFi enabled wireless device, an operator ata PSAP with E911 Phase I capabilities is unable to determine addresslocation based on GPS coordinates that are received from the caller.Also, because WiFi enabled wireless devices do not communicate via acellular network, there is no cell site or base station locationinformation to be communicated to the PSAP. Furthermore, the billingaddress associated with a cell phone is not necessarily considered thelocation to which emergency responders should be sent, since the deviceis portable. This means that locating the caller is more difficult, andthere is a different set of legal requirements.

Accurate and automatic mobile emergency location is the biggestchallenge in the ESN Industry. As noted above, currently about 70% ofemergency calls come from mobile devices. Current methodologies are allnetwork centric and layered over a cellular network. For example,approximate location can be determined using GPS, Assisted GPS (AGPS),cell tower triangulation, and cell tower signal strength/powermeasurements. Unfortunately, these techniques only provide a roughestimate of a caller's location (e.g. a circle on a map) not adispatchable civic address.

In U.S. Pat. No. 9,179,280, Ray et al. disclose a system and method forproviding location information to a public safety answering point duringan emergency 911 call from a WiFi handset. When a user of a WiFi handsetmakes an emergency 911 call, the GPS location of the handset and itsmobile directory number is received at a network access (WiFi) accesspoint. The WiFi access point adds address information to the GPS andmobile directory number of the handset and send the information to aPSAP over the internet. This is a WiFi handset-only solution, andpresupposes that the WiFi handset can access the WiFi Access pointthrough its security layer, that there is a good connection to theinternet, and that the PSAP is capable of receiving and processinginternet calls.

While the methodology describe above by Ray et al. can work for WiFiphones, cell phones are programmed to use the cellular network totransmit emergency calls. Additionally, WiFi phones are specific to aLocal Area Network (LAN) where a “controller” receives communicationsfrom the Wi-Fi handset, recognizes it is an emergency call and thenobtains location information. While this can be effective for a managedLAN or a controlled environment (e.g. a shopping mall, large corporationor plant) it would not be functional or capable for widespread use.

In U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2017/0171754, South et al. disclose a method forsecure, beacon-based emergency location including detecting, with an appexecuting on a user device, a signal from a nearby beacon, andtransmitting app verification information to the beacon, which thensends beacon verification information including the app verificationinformation to both the user device and an emergency verificationserver. The method also includes authenticating, with the emergencyinformation server, the beacon verification information to verify thatthe user device is physically proximate to the beacon and, if the beaconverification information is authentic, determining the geographicallocation of the user device based upon the geographical location of thebeacon. This solution presupposes that the app is installed, activatedand is functional on the mobile device, that the beacon that the mobiledevice can access the beacon through its security layer (if any), thatthere is good connection to the internet, and that all of theverifications have been met.

This system described by South et al., is believed to be very difficultto implement. Regulatory issues will be many and the anticipated cost todeploy and maintain beacons will be great. Furthermore, the complexityof verifications and/or utilization of public and private keys wouldintroduce many new elements into the current emergency systems thatoperators may be reluctant to implement due to the high costs ofinstallation, maintenance, quality control and system management for anew system.

These and other limitations of the prior art will become apparent tothose of skill in the art upon a reading of the following descriptionsand a study of the several figures of the drawing.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, set forth by way of example and not limitation, anemergency location informer system includes: an emergency mobilepositioning (EMP) server communicating over a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN), a cellular network and an internet protocol (IP)network; an emergency service number (ESN) database server storing civicaddresses and associated tags that are provided by an internet serviceprovider (ISP) over the IP network; a wireless access point (AP) EMP-APcomponent executing on a processor of an AP at civic address known tothe ISP, the EMP-AP component providing a tag, known to the ISP, forminga part of a radio frequency (RF) beacon signal transmitted by the AP;and a mobile operating system (OS) EMP-OS component executing on aprocessor of a cell phone and operative to monitor the beacon signal ofthe AP and to store the tag, the EMP-OS component being furtheroperative to embed the tag in an emergency call from the cell phone tothe EMP server over a network; whereby the EMP server receives the tagembedded in the emergency call such that a civic address associated withthe tag can be retrieved from the ESN database server.

In another example, an emergency mobile positioning server includes: aprocessor; a public switched telephone network (PSTN) interface coupledto the processor; a cellular network interface coupled to the processor;an internet protocol (IP) network interface coupled to the processor;memory coupled to the processor, including code segments executable bythe processor including: (a) code segments receiving an emergency callwith an embedded tag via one or more of the PSTN interface, the cellularnetwork interface, and the IP network interface; (b) code segmentsquerying an emergency service number (ESN) database server via the IPnetwork interface with the tag to obtain civic address information; and(c) code segments directing the emergency call with the embedded tag toan emergency call center associated with the civic address information.

An example of a non-transitory computer readable media comprising codesegments executable on a processor of a wireless access point (AP)includes: code segments communicating tag information with an ISPcoupled to the AP at a civic address; code segments embedding the tag ina beacon frame; and code segments transmitting the beacon frame as aradio frequency (RF) beacon signal.

Another example of a non-transitory computer readable media comprisingcode segments executable on a processor of a cell phone including: codesegments monitoring radio frequency (RF) beacon signals for wirelessaccess point (AP) tags that are associated with civic addresses; codesegments storing the AP tags in a memory of the cell phone; codesegments detecting an emergency call being made by the cell phone; andcode segments embedding at least one of the AP tags in the emergencycall.

An advantage of methods and systems disclosed herein is that thelocation of cell phone users making emergency calls can be determinedwith greater accuracy without changing legacy emergency call centers.

Another advantage of methods and systems disclosed herein is that theEMP-OS component is embedded into the OS of a mobile device, whichincludes existing protocols for handling emergency calls.

Yet another advantage of methods and systems disclosed herein is thatthe tag(s) embedded into the emergency call stream by the EMP-OScomponent can be used to determine the location of the caller withoutdisclosing private information.

A still further advantage of methods and systems disclosed herein isthat the location information of access points is provided by a trustedsource, e.g., an Internet Service Provider.

These and other embodiments, features and advantages will becomeapparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the followingdescriptions and a study of the several figures of the drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Several example embodiments will now be described with reference to thedrawings, wherein like components are provided with like referencenumerals. The example embodiments are intended to illustrate, but not tolimit, the invention. The drawings include the following figures:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an Emergency Services Number (ESN) system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a wireless access point (AP) forming a partof the ESN system;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a process implemented by the AP of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a cell phone with a mobile app;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process implemented by the mobile app ofFIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an emergency mobile positioning (EMP)server; and

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a process implemented by the EMP server ofFIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

In FIG. 1, an Emergency Services Number (ESN) system 10 comprises ESNmobile positioning servers, devices and components including anemergency mobile positioning (EMP) server 12, an emergency servicenumber (ESN) database (DB) server 14, wireless access point (AP) 30, anEMP-AP component 16, and a cellular telephone (cell phone) EMP-OScomponent 18. The EMP-AP component 16 includes code segments that areincorporated into the operating system of an access point, e.g. via anApplication Programming Interface (API), a Software Design Kit (SDK) orotherwise. The EMP-OS component 18 includes code segments that areintegrated into the operating system of a cell phone, such that it isalways active. The ESN system 10 also includes devices, components andsystems of third parties, including the cellular telephone network 20,the internet 22, internet service providers 24, ESN operator stations28, wireless access points (APs) 30 (labeled individual here as 30A,30B, and 30C, by way of examples) and cell phone(s) 32. As used herein,the terms “cell phone”, “mobile device”, “handset” and the like areoften used synonymously.

In this example, there are three residential homes R1, R2 and R3, eachhaving a civic address, and each of which receive internet services fromISP 24. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments, theresidential homes may receive internet services from different ormultiple ISPs. Also in this example, APs 30A, 30B and 30C are locatedwithin homes R1, R2, and R3, respectively, and are thereby associatedwith the same civic addresses as the houses.

In FIG. 2, a AP 30, set forth by way of example but not limitation,includes a WiFi device 34, a Bluetooth device 36, a router 38 having oneor more wired Ethernet connections, a 2.4G/5G front end 40, a 5G frontend 42, a 2.4G front end 44, and a duplexer 46. As will be appreciatedby those of skill in the art, WiFi is a technology for wireless localarea networking with devices based upon the IEEE 802.11 (and subsequentadvanced standards inclusively) standards. WiFi most commonly uses the2.4 gigahertz Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and 5 gigahertz Super HighFrequency (SHF) Industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands.The WiFi device 34 can be, by way of example, an 802.11 dual bandtransceiver and processor, such as the BCM4352 dual-band radio made byBroadcom Limited of San Jose, Calif. Coupled to the WiFi device 34 areelectrically erasable, programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) 48, aquartz crystal (XTAL) 50, and a direct current (DC) to DC converter 52.A first antenna connection 54 is coupled to front end 40 and a secondantenna connection 56 is coupled to duplexer 46.

Both the WiFi device 34 and the Bluetooth device 36 can be programmed totransmit “beacons”, which are used to periodically broadcast informationconcerning at least the presence of the device. In addition, beaconsoften include additional information, such as the network configuration,timing codes, etc.

Infrastructure network access points, such as APs, use beacon frames tosend beacon signals at defined intervals, which is sometimes set to adefault 100 ms. A beacon frame is one of the management frames in IEEE802.11 based WLANs, and includes an Ethernet header, body and framecheck sequence (FCS). Some of the fields of a WiFi beacon frame include:

-   -   Timestamp—after receiving the beacon frame, all the stations        change their local clocks to this time. This helps with        synchronization.    -   Beacon interval.    -   Capability information (16 bits)—capability of the        device/network including type of network, support for polling,        encryption details, etc.    -   Service Set Identifier (SSID) is a sequence of 0-32 octets. It        is used as an identifier for a wireless LAN, and is intended to        be unique for a particular area. It is often a human readable        string entered by a user, aka “network name.”

EMP-AP components 16 comprise code and libraries to embed a “tags” intothe beacon frames of APs 30. The EMP-AP components 16 are generated bythe ISP 24 (or other ISPs) and are loaded into a memory of the APs 30,e.g. in EEPROM 48, and are associated with the known civic address ofthe AP. The EMP-APs 16 may comprise a part of the edge software of theAPs 16, or may comprise software development kits (SDKs) which becomeassociated with the edge software of the access points. It should benoted that the code segments of the EMP-APs 16 do not necessarilycommunicate with the APs 16, in that they may not be able to penetratetheir security layer, and to the extent that there is communication withan AP, such communication is limited. For example, such communicationwould not allow the SSID to be user-modified. Also, the tags generatedby the EMP-APs 16 are preferably not modifiable by the user of themobile device, for security and privacy issues.

The civic address of the WiFi access point is known because it isconnected to a wired internet access point known to the ISP. Forexample, if the internet access point was installed and was servicedwith one or more Universal Resource Locators (URLs) at the civic addressof 123 Main Street, Anytown, Minn., the ISP would know, with somecertainty, that the AP 30 was at that civic address, absent some extrememeasures taken by a user to defeat that certainty. Since the ISP has avested interest in knowing the civic address of the WiFi AP, the ISPbecomes a trusted 3^(rd) party provider (“trusted source”) of accuratecivic address information. In addition to storing the EMP-AP components16 in the APs 30, the ISP trusted source maintains a database of tagsand their associated civic addresses in ESN DB server 14. An ESNoperator 28 can then query ESN DB server 14 with a tag, and retrieve thecivic address associated with that tag.

In FIG. 3, an example EMP-AP component process 16 begins at 60 and, inan operation 62, code segments communicate tag information with the ISP.The tag information can be generated by the AP, or by the ISP, orjointly by the AP and the ISP. The tag information (tag) is associatedwith the civic address of the AP, which is known to the ISP. The AP isalso known to the ISP by, for example, the universal resource locator(s)(URLs) assigned to that AP by the ISP. Next, in an operation 64, the tagis embedded in a beacon frame along with other beacon informationnormally provided by an AP. Finally, the beacon frame is transmitted ona periodic basis in an operation 66 as radio frequency (RF) beaconsignal.

FIG. 4 illustrates, by way of example and not limitation, a cell phone32 including the main circuitry 72 and input/output (I/O) componentssuch as a display 74, a keypad 76, a speaker 78, a microphone 80 and acamera 82. Main circuitry 72 is powered by a battery 84 and is turned onand off with a switch 86. In this example embodiment, the main circuitry72 is provided with a universal serial bus (USB) 88. A transmit/receive(Tx/Rx) switch 90 and a Bluetooth/GPS (BT/GPS) module 92 couple anantenna 94 to the main circuitry 72.

Main circuitry 72 of cell phone 32 includes a processor (CPU) 96,capable of running applications (apps) and read only memory (ROM) 98coupled to the CPU 96. In this non-limiting example, app 58 is stored inROM 98, which can be, for example, an electrically erasable,programmable read only memory (EEPROM) or flash memory. Other memoryinclude random access memory (RAM) 102, and a removable subscriberidentity module (SIM) 100 which identifies the subscriber and device.The example main circuitry 72 also includes a CODEC 104, a basebandprocessing and audio/speech processing digital signal processor (DSP)106, a digital to analog converter (DAC) and analog to digital converter(ADC) 108, and a RF part 110 for frequency conversion, poweramplification, etc.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example EMP-OS component 18 process. Inthis non-limiting example, code segments of EMP-OS component 18implement a process that begins at 112 and, in an operation 113, it isdetermined if an emergency call is being made on cell phone 32. Forexample, the user of the cell phone may be dialing 9-1-1. If noemergency call is being made, the process 18 idles in operation 113until an emergency call has been initiated.

After operation 113 detects that an emergency call is being made, it isdetermined if an RF beacon signal is detected in an operation 114. Ifoperation 114 detects an RF beacon signal, an operation 115 determinesif the detected RF beacon includes a tag. It should be noted that notall beacon signals detected by EMP-OS component 18 will include tags,e.g. they are beacons from devices that do not include EMP-AP component16 from an ISP. If a tag is detected by operation 115, the beacon frameparameters, including the tag information, are stored in an operation116. Next, an operation 117 retrieves the beacon frame parameters andone or more tags are embedded in an emergency call stream in anoperation 118, if tags are available. It should also be noted that theprocess of EMP-OS component 18 can store information about a number oftags which can be analyzed for usefulness in determining a civicaddress, or which can be forwarded as a group along with an emergencycall. For example, when there are multiple tags, they can be ranked asprimary, tertiary, etc. for location purposes by first responders. Also,with multiple tags, the location of the mobile device can be moreaccurately determined within the multiple WiFi footprints.

With continuing reference to FIG. 5, it is next determined in anoperation 119 if a cellular network is available. If so, the emergencycall stream, with embedded tags, if available, is sent via the cellularnetwork in an operation 120. If the cellular network is not available,an operation 121 determines if a data network is available and, if so,the emergency call stream with the one or more embedded tags, ifavailable, is sent over the data network in an operation 122. If thedata network is not available, it is determined if the internet isavailable in an operation 123 (e.g. via WiFi) and, if so, the emergencycall streams with the one or more embedded tags, if available, is sentvia the internet in an operation 124. If no network is available, anoperation 125 determines that the emergency call has failed. After anyof operations 120, 122 and 124, and operation 126 sends cell phonelocation information to the EMP server using internet protocol (IP). Forexample, a cell phone 32 can send location information such as GPS, AGPSand the WiFi Universal Resource Locator (URL) information over theinternet to the EMP server 12. While in this non-limiting example, thehierarchy of networks is first cellular, second data and third internet,in other embodiments the hierarchy may be different, or the emergencycall stream with the one or more embedded tags may be sent throughmultiple networks or other networks available to the caller.

With additional reference to FIG. 1, and by way of non-limiting example,if cell phone 32 is within R2, it is likely within range of AP 30B.EMP-OS component 18, residing on cell phone 32, is activated by theinitiation of an emergency phone call by the cell phone user. The EMP-OScomponent 18 retrieves the tag (Tag 2) from the beacon frame transmittedby AP 30B, and stores it in local memory, and any other tags that is mayreceive, e.g. from beacon frames transmitted by AP 30A and/or AP 30B.EMP-OS component 18 then embeds the one or more tags (if available) intothe emergency call stream before sending the emergency call over anappropriate network. Additionally, the GPS location of the cell phone 32can also be transmitted to the EMP server 12 via the internet 22 usinginternet protocol (IP). The EMP server 12 then queries the ESN DB 14 todetermine to which ESN portal (“emergency call center”) the call, alongwith its tag, should be sent. An ESN operator 28 of the emergency callcenter then can converse with the cell phone 32 user, while retrievingthe civic address of the user via the ESN DB server 14.

A beacon frame is one of the management frames in IEEE 802.11 basedWLANs. It contains all of the information about the network. Beaconframes are transmitted periodically to announce the presence of awireless LAN. Beacon frames are transmitted by the access point (AP) inan infrastructure basic service set (BSS). In IBSS network beacongeneration is distributed among the stations. Beacon frames include anEthernet header, body and frame check sequence (FCS). Some of the fieldsinclude:

-   -   Timestamp—after receiving the beacon frame, all the stations        change their local clocks to this time. This helps with        synchronization.    -   Beacon interval    -   Capability information (16 bits)—capability of the        device/network including type of network, support for polling,        encryption details, etc.    -   Service Set Identifier (SSID) is a sequence of 0-32 octets. It        is used as an identifier for a wireless LAN, and is intended to        be unique for a particular area. It is often a human readable        string entered by a user, aka “network name.”        In the present example, the EMP-OS component 18 is preferably        unable to rename the SSID.

In FIG. 6, an example emergency mobile positioning (EMP) server 12includes a processor (CPU) 127, a public switched telephone network(PSTN) interface 128 coupling a PSTN to the processor 127, a cellnetwork interface 129, and an IP network interface 130 coupling an IPnetwork to the processor 127. In some examples, the IP network includesthe internet, and in other examples the IP network is a virtual privatenetwork (VPN). It should be noted that other networks can also becoupled to the CPU 127, to the extent that they are now or in the futureare available. For example, legacy and video inputs can also be coupledto CPU 127. Memory 132, including code segments 134 which helps routethe call to an optimal emergency call center, is also coupled to theprocessor 127.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a process implemented by the code segments134 stored in the memory 132 of EMP server 12. The process 134 begins at136 and, in an operation 138, it is determined if an emergency call iscoming in via the PSTN interface 128. If not, the operation 138 idlesuntil a call does arrive. If there is an emergency call, it isdetermined if there is GPS information associated with that callarriving at IP Network interface 130. If so, the GPS information relatedto the emergency call is stored in an operation 142. The EMP server 12can determine that the GPS information is related to the emergency callin a number of ways, including matching GPS coordinates (and othermobile phone derived location information) with the emergency call, orusing the mobile device phone number or other identifier (e.g. one ormore tags) to match with the voice call.

Next, an operation determines if the emergency call has one or moreembedded tags in an operation 144. If not, the emergency call isdirected based upon the best available information (e.g. GPS, ifavailable) to an emergency call center in an operation 146, after whichprocess control returns to operation 138. If operation 144 does detectone or more embedded tags, an operation 148 optionally retrieves a civicaddress from the ESN DB server 14 based upon the tag(s), and the call isdirected to an ESN operator 28 in an operation 150.

Although various embodiments have been described using specific termsand devices, such description is for illustrative purposes only. Thewords used are words of description rather than of limitation. It is tobe understood that changes and variations may be made by those ofordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit or the scopeof various inventions supported by the written disclosure and thedrawings. In addition, it should be understood that aspects of variousother embodiments may be interchanged either in whole or in part. It istherefore intended that the claims be interpreted in accordance with thetrue spirit and scope of the invention without limitation or estoppel.

What is claimed is:
 1. An emergency location informer system comprising:an emergency mobile positioning (EMP) server communicating over a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), a cellular network and an Internetprotocol (IP) network; an emergency service number (ESN) database serverstoring known civic addresses and associated tags of wireless accesspoints (APs) that are provided by an Internet service provider (ISP)over the IP network; an EMP-AP component stored in non-transitorycomputer readable media and executing on a processor of a wirelessaccess point (AP) at a civic address known to the ISP, the EMP-APcomponent communicating tag information with the ISP over the IPnetwork, the tag information including a tag associated with the civicaddress and stored in the ESN database server, the tag forming a part ofa radio frequency (RF) beacon signal transmitted by the AP, wherein theEMP-AP component is generated by the ISP, transmitted to the AP over theIP network and stored in the non-transitory computer readable media ofthe AP, the EMP-AP component including code segments for embedding thetag into beacon frames of the RF beacon signal along with other beaconinformation provided by the AP; and an EMP-OS component incorporatedinto an operating system (OS) and executing on a processor of a cellphone and operative to monitor the beacon signal of the AP and to storethe tag, the EMP-OS component being further operative to embed the tagin an emergency call from the cell phone to the EMP server over anetwork, wherein the EMP-OS component is further operative to transmitat least one of global positioning system (GPS), Assisted GPS (AGPS) andUniform Resource Locator (URL) information to the EMP server over the IPnetwork; whereby the EMP server receives the tag embedded in theemergency call such that the civic address associated with the tag canbe retrieved from the ESN database server; and wherein the EMP servercommunicates over the IP network with an ESN operator who provides thetag to the ESN database to obtain the associated civic address.
 2. Theemergency location informer system as recited in claim 1 wherein theEMP-OS component monitors a plurality of beacon signals, stores aplurality of tags and embeds multiple tags in the emergency call.
 3. Anemergency mobile positioning server comprising: a processor; a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN) interface coupled to the processor; acellular network interface coupled to the processor; an internetprotocol (IP) network interface coupled to the processor; memory coupledto the processor, including code segments executable by the processorincluding: (a) code segments receiving an emergency call via one or moreof the PSTN interface, the cellular network interface, and the IPnetwork interface; (b) code segments determining if there is locationinformation related to the emergency call; (c) code segments storing thelocation information if there is location information related to theemergency call; (d) code segments determining if there is an embeddedtag for the emergency call; (e) code segments directing the emergencycall to an emergency call center based upon available information ifthere is no embedded tag for the emergency call; (f) code segmentsproviding bi-directional communication with an emergency service number(ESN) database server via the IP network interface, wherein the ESNdatabase server includes known civic addresses and associated tags ofwireless access points (APs); (g) code segments directing the emergencycall with the embedded tag to an emergency call center if there is anembedded tag for the emergency call; wherein the internet serviceprovider (ISP) provides tag and associated civic address information tothe ESN database server over an IP network and provides, over the IPnetwork, an EMP-AP component to a wireless access point (AP) to serve aspart of an AP operating system, the EMP-AP component including codesegments to embed a tag associated with a civic address of the ESNdatabase server in a beacon frame of a radio frequency (RF) beaconsignal of the AP such that the tag can be incorporated into an emergencycall from a cell phone receiving the beacon frame; and wherein theemergency call with the embedded tag is received by an ESN operator ofthe emergency call center.
 4. The emergency mobile positioning server asrecited in claim 3 wherein the ESN operator queries the ESN databaseserver with the tag to retrieve the civic address.
 5. The emergencymobile positioning server as recited in claim 3, wherein the memoryfurther comprises codes segments executable on the processor forreceiving at least one of global positioning system (GPS), Assisted GPS(AGPS) and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information associated withthe emergency call via the IP network interface.
 6. The emergency mobilepositioning server as recited in claim 5, wherein the memory furthercomprises: code segments querying the ESN database to retrieve civicaddress information; and code segments for verifying the civic addressinformation with the at least one of global positioning system (GPS),Assisted GPS (AGPS) and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information. 7.The emergency mobile positioning server as recited in claim 3 furthercomprising code segments receiving an emergency call with a plurality oftags.
 8. The emergency mobile positioning server as recited in claim 7further code segments querying the ESN database server with theplurality of tags to obtain civic address information related to theplurality of tags.
 9. An emergency location informer system comprising:an emergency mobile positioning (EMP) server communicating over a publicswitched telephone network (PSTN), a cellular network and an Internetprotocol (IP) network; an emergency service number (ESN) database serverstoring known civic addresses and associated tags of wireless accesspoints (APs) that are provided by an internet service provider (ISP)over the IP network; a wireless access point (AP) EMP-AP componentexecuting on a processor of an AP at a civic address and with aUniversal Resource Locator (URL) known to the ISP, the EMP-AP componentproviding a tag associated with the civic address and stored in the ESNdatabase server, known to the ISP, wherein the tag is embedded in abeacon frame that is continuously transmitted as a part of a radiofrequency (RF) beacon signal with other beacon information provided bythe AP; and a mobile operating system (OS) EMP-OS component executing ona processor of a cell phone and operative to monitor the beacon signalof the AP and to retrieve and store the tag on the cell phone, theEMP-OS component being further operative to embed the stored tag in asubsequent emergency call from the cell phone to the EMP server over anetwork wherein the EMP-OS component is further operative to transmitglobal positioning system (GPS) information to the EMP server over theIP network; whereby the EMP server receives the tag of the AP embeddedin the subsequent emergency call such that the civic address associatedwith the tag of the AP can be retrieved from the ESN database server;and wherein the EMP server communicates over the IP network with an ESNoperator who provides the tag to the ESN database to obtain theassociated civic address.
 10. An emergency mobile positioning servercomprising: a processor; a public switched telephone network (PSTN)interface coupled to the processor; a cellular network interface coupledto the processor; an internee protocol (IP) network interface coupled tothe processor; memory coupled to the processor, including code segmentsexecutable by the processor including: (a) code segments receiving anemergency call with an embedded tag associated with a wireless accesspoint (AP) having a known civic address via one or more of the PSTNinterface, the cellular network interface, and the IP network interface;(b) code segments querying an emergency service number (ESN) databaseserver storing known civic addresses with associated tags of wirelessaccess points (APs) via the IP network interface with the embedded tagof the emergency call to obtain civic address information; and (c) codesegments directing the emergency call with the embedded tag to anemergency call center associated with the known civic addressinformation of the AP associated with the embedded tag; wherein aninternet service provider (ISP) provides tag and civic addressinformation to the ESN database server; wherein the tag is transmittedin a radio frequency (RF) beacon signal by a wireless access point (AP)connected to the ISP; wherein the ISP provides an EMP-AP component aspart of an AP operating system that includes code segments which add thetag to a beacon frame; and wherein the emergency call with the embeddedtag is received by an ESN operator of the emergency call center.
 11. Theemergency mobile positioning server as recited in claim 10 wherein theESN operator queries the ESN database server with the tag to retrievethe civic address.
 12. The emergency mobile positioning server asrecited in claim 10, wherein the memory further comprises codes segmentsexecutable on the processor for receiving GPS information associatedwith the emergency call via the IP network interface.
 13. The emergencymobile positioning server as recited in claim 12, wherein the memoryfurther comprises code segments for verifying the civic addressinformation with the GPS information.
 14. Non-transitory computerreadable media comprising code segments executable on a processor of awireless access point (AP) comprising: code segments communicating taginformation between an internet service provider (ISP) coupled to the APand a wireless access point (AP) located at a civic address, wherein thetag is generated by at least one of the AP and the ISP and is stored, bythe ISP, on an emergency service number (ESN) database server along withthe known civic address of the AP, whereby the ISP is a trusted source;code segments embedding the tag in a beacon frame with other beaconinformation normally provided by the AP; and code segments transmittingthe beacon frame as a radio frequency (RF) beacon signal, whereby thetag can be incorporated into an emergency call from a cell phonereceiving the beacon frame; whereby an ESN operator is provided theemergency call and provides the tag to the ESN database to obtain theassociated civic address.
 15. Non-transitory computer readable media asrecited in claim 14 wherein the beacon frame is a WiFi beacon frame. 16.Non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 15 furthercomprising code segments for transmitting at least one of globalpositioning service (GPS), Assisted GPS (AGPS) and Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) information via an internet protocol (IP) network afterdetecting an emergency call being made by the cell phone. 17.Non-transitory computer readable media as recited in claim 14 whereinthe beacon frame is a Bluetooth beacon frame.
 18. Non-transitorycomputer readable media as recited in claim 14 further comprising codesegments monitoring a plurality of RF beacon signals, storing aplurality of tags in the memory of the cell phone, and embeddingmultiple tags in the emergency call.
 19. Non-transitory computerreadable media as recited in claim 18 further comprising code segmentsfor ranking the multiple tags for location purposes by first responders.20. Non-transitory computer readable media comprising code segmentsexecutable on a processor of a cell phone comprising: code segmentsmonitoring radio frequency (RF) beacon signals for a wireless accesspoint (AP) tag that is associated with a civic address of the AP andwhich is generated by an internet service provider (ISP) as a trustedsource, wherein the tag and the civic address are stored in an emergencyservice number (ESN) database server by an internet service provider(ISP), wherein the ISP and the AP communicate tag information over theIP network and wherein the tag was generated by at least one of the APand the ISP; code segments storing the beacon frame parameters includingthe tag in a memory of the cell phone if a tag is detected; codesegments detecting an emergency call being made by the cell phone; andcode segments embedding the tag in an emergency call stream such thatthe civic address of the AP can be determined by searching a database ofknown civic addresses of access points and associated tags stored on theinternet and maintained by one or more trusted sources; whereby an ESNoperator provided with the emergency call uses the tag to obtain theassociated civic address from ESN database.
 21. Non-transitory computerreadable media comprising code segments executable on a servercomprising: (a) code segments receiving an emergency call via one ormore of a PSTN interface, a cellular network interface, and an IPnetwork interface; (b) code segments determining if there is locationinformation related to the emergency call; (c) code segments storing thelocation information if there is location information related to theemergency call; (d) code segments determining if there is an embeddedtag associated with a wireless access point (AP) having a known civicaddress for the emergency call; (e) code segments directing theemergency call to an emergency call center based upon availableinformation if there is no embedded tag for the emergency call; (f) codesegments providing bi-directional communication with an emergencyservice number (ESN) database server via an IP network interface,wherein the ESN database server includes known civic addresses andassociated tags for a plurality of APs; and (g) code segments directingthe emergency call with the embedded tag to an emergency call center ifthere is an embedded tag for the emergency call, whereby the emergencycall is provided to an ESN operator who uses the tag to obtain theassociated civic address from the ESN database server; wherein aninternet service provider (ISP) provides tag and civic addressinformation to the ESN database server; wherein the tag is transmittedin a radio frequency (RF) beacon signal by a wireless access point (AP)connected to the ISP; and wherein the ISP provides an EMP-AP componentas part of an AP operating system that includes code segments which addthe tag to a beacon frame.